Study: Segregation rife at charter schools

EDUCATION

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 5, 2010

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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4th and 5th graders at Achieve Academy in Oakland, Calif, on Thursday February 04, 2010, heading for home following a day at school. A new study indicates charter schools are more segregated than are regular public schools, at Achieve Academy the campus is almost 100 percent Hispanic, but represents the community around it. less

4th and 5th graders at Achieve Academy in Oakland, Calif, on Thursday February 04, 2010, heading for home following a day at school. A new study indicates charter schools are more segregated than are regular ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Study: Segregation rife at charter schools

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De facto segregation is alive and well in public schools in virtually every state, but is more common in charter schools - an educational option increasingly endorsed in state and national reform efforts, according to a national study released Thursday.

The trend is particularly severe for African American students, the UCLA researchers found.

Nearly 3 out of 4 black students who attend charters are in "intensely segregated" schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent minority, according to the study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That's twice the rate of regular public schools.

Almost a third of those black students are in what the researchers called "apartheid schools," where 0 to 1 percent of their classmates are white. Charter schools in the Bay Area and California have similar rates of racial isolation.

These are "the very kind of schools that decades of civil rights struggles fought to abolish in the South," researchers said.

Unlike forced segregation in the South before the civil rights movement, de facto segregation is often a product of the demographics of the community in which the school exists. Charter schools, however, are not considered neighborhood schools and are open to all students regardless of where they live.

The study looked at traditional and charter school data from 40 states and the District of Columbia, focusing on metropolitan areas with large numbers of charter schools.

Charter schools were "havens for white re-segregation" in some cases, but predominantly white student bodies occur more often in traditional public schools, the researchers found.

Study criticized

State charter school advocates quickly denounced the study.

"The civil rights issue here is the persistent achievement gap and high dropout rates for these students when they are left to languish in traditional schools that fail to meet their academic needs," said Jed Wallace, CEO and president of the California Charter Schools Association, in a statement. "Parents and students, who have lost faith in the system, choose to enroll in charter schools."

Charter schools have become increasingly popular across the country over the last decade, with the Obama administration pushing the alternative public school option in its Race to the Top reform efforts. California jumped on that bandwagon, recently eliminating a cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state.

In 2008, more than 238,000 California students, or about 4 percent of public school enrollment, attended charter schools, up from about 112,000 in 2001.

Nationally, research is mixed on the academic success of charter schools compared with traditional schools.

State education officials, who support Race to the Top efforts, noted that the report doesn't address student achievement within charter or traditional schools. There are successes and failures among both types of public schools, said Department of Education spokeswoman Hilary McLean.

"While this study raises interesting issues, we must remain focused on our goal by supporting those schools that are delivering results and improving those that are not making the grade," she said.

Remedies called for

The Civil Rights Project report called on federal and state officials to address segregation in charter schools by enforcing civil rights standards of equity, and creating policies that encourage and monitor enrollment. One suggestion was to tie federal funds to charter schools that offer transportation and achieve diversity.

California law requires charter school petitions to include how its student population would reflect the general population of the local school district, state officials said.

Yet at the Achieve Academy charter school in Oakland, nearly 90 percent of the 224 students are Latino. The school is part of the Education for Change network made up of three Oakland charter schools. Achieve Academy posts higher test scores on average than those of Latino students statewide.

Like all charter schools, Achieve offers equal access to any family that wants their child to attend the school. Latino families flock to the school. Others don't.

"It is not particularly usual for people who have a certain level of income to travel into poor communities to integrate the schools," said Education for Change founder and CEO Kevin Wooldridge. "I think to say that charter schools are not diverse enough is essentially targeting schools for societal problems. To lay that problem at our feet is not particularly realistic."

Yet many charter schools set up shop in specific neighborhoods hoping to serve a specific subset of children - often at-risk, low-income, minority students.

That might sound like a noble goal, but it is not one that adheres to the fundamental promise of equity in a public education, said UCLA Professor Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project.

"You can't decide to just serve one group of kids," Orfield said. "If you're taking public funds, you're subject to civil rights laws."